There may not be much time left until Love Island 2023 starts, but according to Sally Nugent, the new cast of The Apprentice is very similar.
Lord Alan Sugar’s BBC show comes back with a bang on Thursday, with 18 new contestants vying for a chance to get an amazing £250,000 investment for their proposed businesses, as well as the tycoon’s invaluable mentorship in the future.
For their first task, they are sent all the way to the Caribbean island of Antigua to try to sell custom tours to tourists. When they get back to the UK, Lord Sugar and his assistants, Karren Brady and Claude Littner, give them a hard time.
On Wednesday’s BBC Breakfast, hosts Jon Kay and Sally Nugent talked about a newspaper spread of the show’s cast, which included Joseph Phillips, who called himself the “James Bond of business,” and Rochelle Anthony, who said she’s been called the “Kim Kardashian of the business world.”
‘Are we sure this is The Apprentice?’ Sally asked as she looked at the newspaper article, which featured a picture of Joseph in small swimming trunks and Rochelle in a red dress.
‘They’re a very glamorous lot aren’t they? You were saying it’s more like Love Island,’ Jon, 53, remarked.
‘It’s not Love Island? It’s The Apprentice,’ Sally, 51, added.
After taking a closer look at Joseph’s Daniel Craig-in-Casino-Royale-like moment, Sally brought up how much Lord Sugar has to do with who gets cast on the show.
‘Lord Sugar says actually he’s very involved in the recruitment process, so it’s not about what they look like. It’s about their business brains,’ she said… before chuckling at her own words.
During a press conference ahead of the 2023 series launch, Lord Sugar was asked what he thought of the comparisons between the cast of The Apprentice and Love Island.
‘I don’t know – I’d be able to answer that question if I ever watched Love Island,’ the 75-year-old quipped.
He was also asked about the prospect of casting older candidates in the programmes, as he insisted that there was no restriction on how old applicants could be.
‘There is no age limit to our applications,’ he stressed.
‘In the past series, I think there was someone who was a little more mature than the other candidates. There is no age limit and we don’t restrict people of more mature age.’
The Apprentice 2023 series begins on Thursday at 9pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
